


The Start of a Coming Race

by thebodyeclectic



Series: this is only now (where do we go from here) [3]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-21
Updated: 2012-01-21
Packaged: 2017-10-29 21:11:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/324219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebodyeclectic/pseuds/thebodyeclectic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein their family gets even bigger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Start of a Coming Race

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AleishaPotter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AleishaPotter/gifts).



> For AleishaPotter, who wanted something to do with Erik and Charles having kids. Sorry if this isn't exactly what you wanted (thinking about David just makes me sad and I don't really know much about Anya) but I hope you enjoy it anyway!
> 
> Unbeta-ed.

Raven gets the call in that hazy nexus that's too late to be called morning and too early to be the afternoon because the delineating factor - lunchtime - has been moved around so many times in the last few years that she uses it as an excuse for the almost unacceptable levels of face-stuffing she engages in between the hours of eleven AM and one PM.

She's in the middle of swallowing a hideously pink Sno Ball whole and ignoring the scandalised looks Janos is giving her over the mountain of paperwork that separates the two tables in the little cubicle they call their office when her mobile starts playing Bowie's _Oh! You Pretty Things_ because Charles is nothing if not endlessly narcissistic.

She fishes her phone out of her jacket pocket, pointedly ignoring Janos's glare, and answers with a curt, "What?"

"Professional, much?" Janos calls out and Raven hurls a Ho-Ho at him.

"Raven," Charles says and it's a testament to their weird bond that she can tell with absolute certainty that something's really, really wrong.

"Oh God, what's happened?" she says, frantic, mobile wedged between her ear and shoulder as she shuts her laptop, piles the dozen or so file folders she'd been going through to one side and flails wildly at Janos who, by virtue of long exposure to her family, just rolls his eyes and motions for her to go - he'll cover for her.

She's already halfway down the corridor leading to her building's atrium and struggling with her blazer and purse before she registers Charles saying, "Oh, love, nothing like you're imagining."

"Then what?" she screeches, startling Gary at the security desk.

Charles lets out a long breath and in that interim, Raven can hear the distinct noises only being in an airport can generate in the background.

"Charles Francis Xavier," she bites out while bulldozing past a couple of high school hipsters in her rush to get out of the building. "If you're fucking calling me to rhapsodize about a spur of the moment honeymoon, I will defy all laws of nature and teleport myself to where you are and strangle you with my bare hands."

Jesus Christ, she wishes she still smoked because sometimes Charles and his dramatics are just too fucking much to deal with.

"No, i-" he says and that's when Raven knows this is important shit.

Charles has never been one to stutter or break off in the middle of something. His speech patterns follow one of two courses: airy nonchalance or gratingly whiny but he's never at a loss for words.

"Charles."

A sigh and then, "Erik - Erik and I, we're going...away - for a few days. A week and a half at most, I should think."

Raven stops in the middle of the sidewalk, blinks, misses being run over by a cyclist and gives him the finger while trying to assign a meaning to all the fragments Charles has just said.

"So," she says, plonking her ass down on the curb. "Not a honeymoon?"

An exhale and she can totally see Charles squeezing the bridge of his nose. "No, not in the slightest."

"Is everything okay?"

"No," and this time it comes on the tail of something that's dangerously close to hysteria. "Not exactly."

"Life-threatening?" she ventures because it never hurts to be _sure_.

A long pause and then Charles haltingly answers, "This is in very poor taste but no. Neither Erik and I are in any danger."

"Fine," Raven says, clenching her jaw. "If you're not gonna tell me - "

"Can't," Charles corrects and it's a relief to know that regardless of whatever's going on, he's still as prissy as ever. "It isn't my place to say."

"Yeah, yeah, if you _can't_ tell me what the hell's going on," Raven says, imbuing her voice with as much exasperated fondness she can muster (which is a lot since she's _Charles's_ sister after all), "then can you tell me _where_ you're going or are you and Erik John Steed and Emma Peel now?"

"Darling, you _know_ we're Nick and Nora Charles," he says and even though it's a non-answer, she's relieved that whatever it is that's going on isn't so bad that he's lost his sense of humour.

"Blotto and all," Raven murmurs, wishing desperately that she herself could get shitfaced right about now.

"Obviously."

She sighs, rubs her forehead. "Be safe, okay?"

"I will, love, and please don't worry so."

"Yeah, yeah," she says and just listens to her brother breathing into the phone. It's stupid but reassuring all the same.

"I've got to go," he says finally and if she strains hard enough she can hear Erik murmuring in the background. "Love you."

"You too," she says and then he disconnects. She sits there on the dirty curb for a minute before getting up and brushing off her trousers.

If she's lucky she can probably catch someone on their smoke break by the dumpsters and bum a cigarette.

Jesus.

*

It's two weeks before she hears Charles's voice again.

In the interval, she'd basically camped out on Alex and Hank's couch, alternately clutching a pillow or Scott to her chest and eating tons of Alex's cooking in between watching A Little Princess, The Secret Garden and Eloise on repeat because they remind her of Charles.

Scott's currently conked out next to her, having given up trying to wrest control of the TV and she can so totally hear Alex and Hank having what they think is a whispered conversation in the kitchen. Their flat's architecture is weird and it turns out that you can hear _everything_ that's going on in the kitchen from the living room.

Huh, that kinda explains a lot about Scott.

"This has gone past crazy," she hears Alex say. "You need to talk to her."

There's the sound of the tap being shut off and then Hank's saying, "She misses Charles, okay? What do you expect me to do about it?"

"I don't wanna sound like I'm judging or anything," Alex says.

"Always a great opener," Hank snarks.

"But that sounds insanely codependent," Alex says, completely ignoring Hank's bitchiness and Raven sees why they're perfect for each other. Also, she's never denied that she and Charles have a weird relationship.

"Count yourself lucky that you weren't around when Raven ran off to the city to be a model," Hank says. "Charles was inconsolable."

"I'll bet," Alex says, dry. There's a break in the conversation and Raven bets Hank's definitely trying to coerce Alex into seeing their side of things via a lot of making out. "Look, I get that she misses him but does she have to do it on our couch?"

"You're going to regret that," Hank mutters.

"What?"

"Sean's coming and before you know it, there's going to be two of them."

"Jesus Fucking Christ."

"You knew what you were getting into," Hank says, completely unsympathetic. Raven has to agree.

"I didn't exactly sign on to have your family walk in on us fucking, Doc," Alex says in that really deadpan way he has that everyone's come to realise means he's bordering hysteria or hysterical amusement - they're not really sure which one yet, the only person with a better poker face than Alex is Erik.

"Shh," Hank hisses, which is patently hilarious because last night was really nothing to be scandalised about. Raven's seen Hank in worse (or better, it depends, Hank's really bendy) positions and it's not like Hank doesn't tell her _everything_ anyway.

It's funny because she never would've pinned Alex to be such a prude. And sure, it was her fault; she woke up in the middle of the night and forgot that Hank's with Alex now and that she couldn't just crawl into bed with him like she used to but she'd just squinted at them, sleep-stupid, gave them a thumbs up and went to go use Scott as a pillow instead.

Not _completely_ her fault though because she usually knows to keep out when Hank makes his loud sex noises, which he wasn't making last night.

Having kids probably does that to you. She idly wonders if Erik and Charles had to tone it down when they got Sean.

Probably not. They like inflicting emotional trauma on Sean too much.

Scott starts to stir, smacking his lips and digging his head into her side. Which, _ow_.

He opens one eye, glaring blearily up at her and then turns to regard the TV balefully. "Your show's not done?"

"About halfway," she says, patting his hip.

Scott glares at Eloise on the screen for ten whole minutes. "She's annoying."

"But you love her anyway."

Scott makes a face up at her. "Dad thinks the separation anxiety is making you unhinged." He pauses to look her up and down. "I agree."

She scowls down at him. "Don't make me tell on you, kiddo."

Scott shrugs, totally uncowed, and goes back to glaring at Eloise.

Someone starts knocking crazily at the front door and she can hear Alex's "I hate my life" from the kitchen before Sean starts yelling, "Anyone home?" and totally defeats the purpose of knocking by letting himself in with his key.

"If you don't keep it down, the neighbours are gonna start calling the cops!" Raven calls out.

"Mrs. Nazwisko is head of the neighbourhood watch," Scott says.

"Like they haven't already since you've been around," Sean replies, totally steamrolling over Alex and Hank to plop down on the floor in front of her and stealing her bag of hot Cheetos.

"Weak," Raven says, reaching into the cushions behind her for a pack of M&Ms.

Scott and Sean make identical 'gimme-gimme' hand gestures. She shares her bounty with Scott and shoves Sean's head with her foot.

"What the - are you starting a candy store in there?" Hank screeches from the door.

"I always wanted to run a concession stand," Raven says, shrugging.

Hank makes his aggrieved face. Alex pats him consolingly on the hip. Or it could be an 'I-told-you-so' pat. Whatever. Couples are nauseating.

"Why aren't you at the mansion, Sean?" he asks. Alex is nice like that. He could have just said what he clearly meant which is _What the hell are you doing in my home?_ and Sean would give zero fucks. They'll break him of the social niceties eventually.

"You ever been alone in that place?" Sean says, spraying Cheetos crumbs everywhere. "Creepy, man. And like Great Uncle Augustus gets tetchy when Charles isn't there."

"Great Uncle Augustus...?"

"The ghost," Raven and Hank chorus.

Alex blinks at them.

"He's funny," Scott chimes in. "We used to play hide-and-seek in the solarium when I was little."

"You know what?" Alex says, throwing his hands up in defeat. "Never mind."

Hank smiles down at him indulgently and presses a kiss to his temple. "We once lost Scott for a whole afternoon."

"We went crazy looking for him," Sean adds. "We found him buried under a dust cover in the conservatory, asleep."

" _There were three ravens sat on a tree, they were as black as they might be,_ " Scott sings, voice high and clear. " _With a down, derry, derry, down, down._ "

Raven shudders. "He never liked me."

"Me neither, man," Sean says.

"You're all crazy," Alex says bluntly then, ruining his pretence of stoicism, turns to Hank. "They're crazy, right?"

Hank shrugs. "Never met him but I think I used to hear him rattling the windows sometimes."

Raven snorts. "No, that was just Erik and Charles fu - sexytimes..."

Scott pokes her in the side and squints at her. "I know what you were gonna say!"

"It doesn't count if I don't say it, buddy," she says, tickling him.

He squirms away and topples off the couch, landing on top of Sean. "Can we watch _Adventure Time_ now?"

"We've gotta get through _Eloise at Christmastime_ next," Sean says, patting Scott on the head in commiseration.

"It isn't even Christmas!" Scott whines, flopping onto the floor dramatically.

"I had to sit through that campy Captain America movie with you and it wasn't even Fourth of July, so deal with it," Raven says.

Scott sighs loudly.

Raven hands him the whole bag of M&Ms as a non-apology.

"Okay," Hank says, long-suffering. "That's enough junk food, Scott. Time for bed."

"What?" Scott, Raven and Sean chorus.

"Dude, it's _summer_ ," Sean says.

"Da-ad!"

Hank crosses his arms. "Bed. You've been up since seven watching TV."

"But I didn't get to see any of _my shows_!" Scott glares at Raven meaningfully.

"I got to the remote first," Raven says, sticking her tongue out.

"That's 'cos you were sleeping on it!"

"Your fault you didn't nick it from me."

Scott makes the most adorable angry face at her.

"Bed. Now," Hank repeats, completely immune to Scott's cute.

"Have a heart, doc," Alex says, rubbing Hank's side. "Let him see one show. We're not doing anything tomorrow."

"Not Eloise!" Scott adds.

Hank wavers then rolls his eyes. "Fine. One show. Then a bath then bed."

"Yes!" Scott makes victory arms and pounces on Raven. "Please, please, pleeeeeeeease!"

Raven sighs then gives him the remote. "Fine. I need to use the bathroom anyway."

"Yaye!" Scott immediately flips over to Netflix while Sean says, "New _Howling Commandos_!" He and Scott high five while Raven gets up and heads for the bathroom.

The phone rings just as she's getting out and she hears Hank's astonished, "Charles?" and then she's hurtling past every piece of furniture to snatch the cordless out of Hank's hand.

" _Where the hell have you been?_ " she shrieks, ignoring Hank who presses up against her, trying to hear.

"I'm fine, Raven," Charles says, exasperated, even though he has no right to be.

"Where are you?" she demands then checks the phone's display. "You're home? When did you get in?"

"What's he saying?" Hank asks, crowding her. He isn't the only one. Sean and Scott have come barreling into the kitchen - probably having heard her yelling - and Sean's trying to press his ear against the phone while Scott's jumping up and down, pulling at her shirt. "Hi Charles! Hi Charles!"

"Is that Scott?" Charles says. "Hello!"

"Charles says hi to Scott," Raven says.

"Whatabout me?" Sean whines.

She can hear Charles laughing through the line. "Hello to everyone."

"He says hi guys," Raven repeats.

"Where'd he and Erik go?" Scott asks, impatient while Sean says, "Are they home? Can I go home now?" while Hank says, "When did they get in?"

Raven's about to repeat all of that into the receiver when Alex gets fed up with all of them and puts the phone on speaker.

"Yes, we're back at home," Charles says, voice loud and clear through the telephone base and they all stop crowding around Raven at the sink to go crowd around it on the kitchen counter. Even Alex. Ha.

"When did you get in?" Hank says.

"Just this afternoon," Charles answers. "Sorry we didn't tell you sooner - it was a bit of a bother and I've only just managed to spare a few moments."

"What's going on? Where'd you go?" Raven asks.

A pause and they can hear Charles inhaling deeply.

"Is it safe to go home now?" Sean cuts in.

Raven smacks him.

Charles laughs. "Yes, right. Brunch tomorrow, everyone. We've some news."

"What?" Raven, Sean, Hank and Scott ask. Even Alex is leaning into the machine, curious.

"Well," Charles starts but then he says, "Oh, darling, again?" in a tone that's equal parts amused, affectionate and tired and there's a brief scuffling sound, Erik in the background and something that sounds like a siren going off. "Just a sec," Charles says and then his voice comes through louder this time. "We'll explain tomorrow," he says through the noise. "Love to you all," and then he hangs up, leaving them to stare at each other in bewilderment.

"Huh," Alex says, and he has the presence of mind to end the call. "Maybe it's just me but did that sound like - "

"It did, it really did," Hank says, nodding.

Sean just blinks at them.

"What?" Scott says, tugging at Alex's and Hank's hands. "What?"

"Jesus fucking Christ," Raven says and then she's grabbing her car keys and bolting for the door.

*

Because there's no such thing as propriety when it comes to their family, they all make their way to the house, probably violating a dozen or so traffic rules in the process.

Sean's fiddling with the radio, still wide-eyed and mindlessly repeating, "You really think so? You really think so?" at her like her answer will change from one second to the next.

Yeah, no, they all know what they heard and that's why she and Hank are driving like they're in Nascar. Confirmation is necessary and absolutely cannot wait until morning.

She and Sean get there first, sprinting up the steps and fumbling with the lock for a second. She throws the doors wide open, leaving Sean to deal with the alarm, and races up the stairs.

"Charles?" she calls out, heading for the master bedroom. "I know you're in here!"

She hears Erik's heartfelt, " _Fucking hell,_ " and Charles's equally exasperated yet chiding, "Really darling," before she knocks down their door.

It sounds like an air-raid siren's gone off, is the first thing she thinks. And then her brain registers the rest of the scene.

Erik's glaring at her from where he's sitting at the edge of the enormous antique four-poster, hand cupped protectively around the dark-tufted head of the baby sleeping peacefully on top of the covers. Charles is by the window, cradling the source of the ungodly noise - a wailing baby with hair so blond it's almost white.

Raven gapes.

"Oh wow," Sean says, coming up beside her.

"What part of tomorrow did you not understand?" Erik bitches but his hands are soft, drawing a pale yellow blanket over the sleeping baby.

"You've got room to talk!" Raven hisses, finally snapping out of it.

"Raven, inside voice please," Charles says, swaying from side to side and the baby in his arms squirms. Charles presses a kiss to its forehead. "I'd just gotten him to nod off when you barged in."

"You've got no leg to stand on," Raven growls - but softly, mindful of the baby Charles is holding. The baby's sobbing, little body shuddering where he's pressed against Charles's chest but his crying's gotten quieter. Relatively.

"Babies," Sean breathes and then he's snuck past Raven and into the room, coming to stand next to Erik. "Baby," he repeats stupidly.

Raven refuses to be so easily swayed. "Explain. Now."

Charles sighs, hand moving up and down the baby's back and no, Raven really is _that_ easily swayed because it looks so _right_ \- Charles and a baby.

"We'll leave off explaining until..." Charles smiles when Scott's voice trickles up from the first floor. "Everyone's present and accounted for. Easier to do it just the once."

Raven takes a wary step in the room, treating the situation like a stand-off between her and Charles.

Charles smiles beseechingly at her.

"Hands," Erik says warningly and she turns in time to see him smack Sean's hand away from the sleeping baby.

"Oh, darling, let him," Charles says. "Wanda won't stir."

So. Girl baby.

Sean smiles with unholy glee. "Hey there, Wanda," he coos at her, bending close enough that his nose almost touches her cheek. "Hey."

Erik pulls an aggrieved face. Raven sympathizes. She never understood why people went stupid when confronted with babies.

"Raven," Charles says, making doe-eyes at her. She makes a face at him and is saved from having to come up with a reply by Scott barrelling past her, yelling, "Charles! Erik! Hi! Hi!" and launching himself at the bed.

Erik catches him neatly mid-flight. "Don't wake her," he says, trying for stern and failing when Scott wraps his arms and legs around Erik.

"Who?" Scott asks, twisting to look at where Sean's making stupid throat noises at Wanda. "Baby!" He wiggles in Erik's arms, trying to get down.

Erik walks him closer but doesn't let go. "Quietly," he says emphatically.

Scott nods frantically and whispers, "Baby! Hi, baby!"

Hank and Alex are just coming in the room. Hank's jaw literally falls. It'd be hilarious if Raven weren't too busy being pissed at her brother.

"Charles went away to have secret twin babies," Alex says, taking everything in stride as usual.

Raven doesn't miss the way Charles tenses and glances over at Erik. Thankfully, Erik's pre-occupied trying to keep Scott and Sean from poking Wanda awake, though how she's able to sleep through all the commotion is a question for the ages.

Charles walks over to them, tension still etched in his shoulders, and the baby in his arms must feel it in that uncanny way babies (and dogs) do and starts up wailing again.

"Holy fuck, that baby's loud," Alex says.

Charles looks betrayed at that, cupping the baby's ear as if to prevent him from hearing which is the dumb kind of thing only Charles would do. "Alex," he chides.

"No, seriously," Alex says, peering down at the baby. "I've heard bombs go off quieter than that."

And Alex's monotone must have some soothing quality to it because the baby just _stops_ screaming his head off, turns his head in Alex's general direction and starts hiccuping while staring at Alex myopically.

"Good Lord," Charles breathes. "Keep talking!"

"Uh..." Alex says and the baby blinks, face scrunching up and looking like he's working himself up for another bout of crying. Hank nudges Alex and Alex starts reciting the Captain America cartoon theme song.

To everyone's amazement, the baby stops fussing and his eyes droop and, right in the middle of Alex's recitation of the Phineas and Ferb intro, he falls asleep.

Charles is gracing Alex with his anime eyes and, for the first time, Raven notices the matched set of luggage under his eyes. "I could kiss you," he tells Alex sincerely. Alex's eyes bug out and he shifts slightly back into Hank but - and this is why Alex is _the best_ \- he doesn't stop his monotone singing.

"He stopped crying," Erik says, walking up to them.

"He did," Charles says, sounding hysterical.

Erik turns to Alex. "That's it. You're moving in."

Alex very smartly backs away from the crazies.

"Yes, please," Charles begs.

"Okay," Hank says, cutting in. "Step off."

"You can move back in too," Erik says.

"I haven't had more than two hours of uninterrupted sleep for ten days," Charles says, seemingly apropos of nothing.

"That much is obvious," Raven says. "You've gone mad from lack of sleep."

"Yes," Charles says, nodding sincerely. "Yes, I have."

"Would you guys mind explaining what's going on?" Hank interrupts. "Starting with whose babies those are?"

Charles bites his lip and looks up at Erik. Erik's face is as blank as ever but he does lift his arm so Charles can plaster himself to his side - still swaying the baby, mind.

"They're ours," Erik says, curt and Charles's face is clearly torn between elation and distress.

When nothing else is clearly forthcoming, Alex interrupts the strained silence with, "You maybe wanna expand on that?"

Erik levels him with a look. The way Alex stiffens to attention would usually be hilarious if Raven herself weren't so frustrated.

She's about to tear into them - and Hank is so with her on this one - when Sean and Scott start cheering.

"She's awake!" Sean says.

"Hi Wanda! Hi Wanda!" Scott says. "I'm your cousin Scott!"

Hank makes a pained face. "He's _everyone's_ cousin."

They all turn to look at Wanda, making pleased baby burbling noises and trying to grab her toes. Sean tickles her neck and she shrieks joyfully.

Okay, Raven is totally dropping IQ points in proportion to the amount of cute the baby is getting. Charles smiles soppily up at Erik and even Erik allows a smile to tug the corners of his mouth.

Erik goes to save Wanda from being snuggled to death.

"Well," Charles says, smiling idiotically. "Introductions are in order. That lovely little girl is Wanda."

"And the one trying to puncture our eardrums earlier is Pietro," Erik says, bringing Wanda over to where they're standing, Sean and Scott trailing after him.

Wanda grins a toothless baby grin at them and even though logic presupposes that she's blind as a bat at this stage of her life, it doesn't stop them from melting completely at the sight of it.

When she reaches out to where Pietro's chubby little fist is clutching tight at Charles's collar is the point where they all basically have to be scraped off the floor, having died at how adorably perfect it all is.

*

Raven gets bits and pieces about where Charles and Erik went and where the twins came from over the course of a month. Charles says it's because babies take up so much time and she can hardly get a moment's peace to interrogate him before Pietro's crying like he's being tortured and nothing but being in Charles's arms coupled with Alex's atrocious singing is able to console him.

She also knows that that's a bullshit excuse because nothing short of death will stop Charles from talking, maybe not even then - he'll haunt the halls of the house with Uncle Augustus, talking the ears off future occupants until the world ends or he's exorcised.

They were in Bulgaria, she manages to pry out of him when he hands her Pietro and insists she learn to feed him. The twins are Erik's ex-handler's. Her name was Magda and she was beautiful and she made Erik executor of her will when she died.

It obviously isn't the entire story and judging from the colour of Pietro's eyes and the jut of Wanda's chin, they aren't just Magda's kids.

They never get the whole story, though. Not until the day Wanda turns twelve and decides to run away to join NATO and Pietro spills the whole story to her when he comes to ask for help tracking Wanda down.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been brought to my attention that my shoddy writing makes it seem like Erik cheated on Charles. HE DIDN'T, okay? That's just my horrible writing skills at work and posting this whilst sleep-deprived. Sorry.


End file.
